Power generation and vehicles are two of the world’s biggest market segments for natural gas usage. And the vehicles group has the potential to be the fastest growing of all of the natural gas markets, according to Richard Kolodziej, president of Natural Gas Vehicles for America.

“If you look at the historical markets for natural gas, you have residential and commercial, but you’re not going to make a big difference in those markets quickly,” he said at the 2010 Developing Unconventional Gas (DUG) Conference and Exhibition, held in Fort Worth.

“Then there’s the industrial market, which is largely driven by the economy. Until the economy improves, things will stay the way they are. There are the feedstocks, but that group wants to see gas at $3, which doesn’t work for producers. Vehicles will drive natural gas growth.”

Globally, many major car manufacturers are now making more natural gas vehicles. In 2006, the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles forecasted a growth rate for these vehicles worldwide, based on activity in 2005. The world has already exceeded the global growth curve for what was expected in 2009 and early 2010. By 2020, there will be 65 million natural gas vehicles, Kolodziej said.

The U.S. currently has nearly 120,000.

“Our focus has been on high-fuel-use, heavy- and light-duty urban vehicles. These include buses, freight trucks, urban delivery vehicles and taxis. As a result, the number of natural gas vehicles in the U.S. has been growing slowly, but volumes (percentage increases year-over-year) have increased significantly.”

Also, only natural gas has the potential to replace diesel as a fuel in the heavy-duty markets, Kolodziej said. If anyone clams to have the panacea for the transportation market as an alternative to diesel fuel, “they either don’t know what they’re talking about or they’re lying to you. There isn’t a single silver-bullet solution, technology or alternative fuel that is going to displace petroleum.”

Further down the road, the natural-gas-vehicle initiative will extend to the consumer markets.

“We’re going to be successful because of several things. First, we have adequate fuel. Also, natural gas vehicles generate lower emissions; if the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas in the environment, we have an advantage. On a life-cycle basis, natural gas vehicles are more expensive to buy but less expensive to operate, which will save customers a lot of money. Our benefits will only increase as our technology gets cleaner and more efficient.”

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